Some of you may have seen the first map, Arillia (http://www.cartographersguild.com/finished-maps/26692-arillia-finished.html), in this series of maps that I am doing for a 2d platformer I'm attempting to make. This is the realm where the player will start the game.

So I got to this point and realized I was doing this all wrong. Instead of making a map for each realm I should make one large map of the entire continent. As the player moves from level to level the players viewport will move with them when they get to a certain point in the screen. This is better because I wont have to worry about the different resolutions people will be using. I'd love some input if anyone has any ideas for this.

If nothing else the time spent on this gave me a good concept of what I want it to look like. So, I think my next version will be like this, but the whole continent and about 5 times bigger.

I love that little wizard on the northern island. He looks so grumpy :) The mountains look really good, but I agree with Max. The coastline is to soft compared to the mountains which are sharper. I also don't like how the outline around a few of the islands bleed into border. I love the colors, and this map looks so amazing already.

Slylok

04-07-2014, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the input guys :!:. Hmmm...I guess I have two options. I could give the coasts some hand drawn waves or I could make the mountains more plain. I was debating this when i started drawing the mountains in. I may do a more plain version to see what it looks like. I don't want it to be too distracting from the location markers so more plain elements may be the way to go.

I love that little wizard on the northern island. He looks so grumpy :) The mountains look really good, but I agree with Max. The coastline is to soft compared to the mountains which are sharper. I also don't like how the outline around a few of the islands bleed into border. I love the colors, and this map looks so amazing already.

the wizard is a concept for the main player. im glad you like him :). Once i redo the map to be the entire continent in this style. The coast shouldn't overlap the border as the border and cartouche will be the border for the players viewport and will be over everything visible on screen.

Diamond

04-07-2014, 01:30 PM

Please don't touch the mountains! They look great! I'm in love with them and in fact we're going to elope.

So yeah... that was awkward. :D But my vote is to improve the coasts to match the mountains.

Carbus

04-07-2014, 01:50 PM

I think that what Max meant was to make the lines and countour thiner so that it giver a hand-draw feeling to the map. The coasts now looks way too photoshoped, and also too perfect and even, which are not balancing well with the hand draw elements. Make the coast lines more uneven, noisy, to make it feel like a real coast (and also the rivers that look the same way) with all the "imperfections", and also make the line thiner.

Other than that, I really liked the mountains, the wizard and the other map elements. Keep up the good work!

- Max -

04-07-2014, 02:16 PM

Indeed I would rather work on the coastlines to make them match the mountains which look great ;) No way you change the mountains!